Republicans Criticize $81.9 Billion Spending Bill

This is simply shocking!!!

WASHINGTON - The White House request for $81.9 billion in emergency money, mostly to finance military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, is drawing increasing criticism from leading Republicans on Capitol Hill, who say it includes too much extraneous spending and should be pared back.

Ordinarily, a bill to pay for wartime operations would be sacrosanct among members of the president's party. But the so-called supplemental spending bill also includes other expenditures, like relief for tsunami-stricken nations and aid to the Palestinian Authority.

The bill was the main point of contention Tuesday at a Senate Budget Committee hearing, where several Republicans sharply questioned Paul D. Wolfowitz, the deputy secretary of defense, about why the measure included money for items that, they said, are not directly related to military operations.

Mr. Wolfowitz urged Congress to approve the package, saying it was made up of "one-time expenditures."

But in interviews after the hearing, some of the Senate's most prominent Republicans said they had concerns about the measure.

"I think it's too much money, and too much of it is not urgent or supplemental," said Senator Trent Lott, a Mississippi Republican.

more...

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/02/politics/02defense.html?pagewanted=print&position=

and NO SMOKING INSIDE MY HOUSE!!

I was simply shocked that our nation's conservatives would have such a hard time with taking more of our tax dollars away from us to give to the BabyBush so he can continue playing Armyman over in the ME.

I don't want to hear a word on spending from Republicans. Not after the
Trump wedding. TWENTY chandeliers @ $250,000 APIECE.

Republicans made that ostentation possible. But feeding schoolchildren and caring for our aged, our veterans, OUR CITIZENS is just too expensive? Let them tell their pals to hock a chandelier and ante up.

Don't ya just love it!

I'm glad to see the Pubs seem to finally recognize how crazy this Admin really is.

I wish it was someone other than Trent Lott because I don't think he's one of the favorites anymore. But the message did say "most prominent Republicans" so I guess I can feel happy that it's more than just him!

none of those republicans suggested actually paying for this instead of borrowing and adding it to the national debt.

traitors!!

/freeper logic

Pretty Please!!!

This is so blatant that even an asshole like lott knows it isn't right.

and they give him the whole motherfucker as his private toy, and it's OK with everybody, that's whats pathetic.

Just as they promised that the US out of pockets would be 1.8 billion as we started this?

borrow and spend, borrow and spend, borrow and spend, borrow and spend, borrow and spend, borrow and spend.

Red ink rethuglicans, Red ink rethuglicans, Red ink rethuglicans, Red ink rethuglicans

Repetition, repetition, repetition. Say it loud and often

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/03/01/1521200

ALAN GRAYSON: Certainly. The allegations are that this company committed any kind of fraud that they could imagine over the course of working for the Coalition Provisional Authority and as subcontractors under U.S. contract. For instance, they set up Cayman Islands subsidiaries and subsidiaries of subsidiaries in the Cayman Islands. Then they manufactured out of thin air invoices from these subsidiaries and handed them in under their prime and materials contracts, which basically operated like expense accounts, and they handed in these vouchers that they had created themselves, said that they were from their independent companies which were, in fact, subsidiaries, and they received millions and millions of dollars of reimbursement from the government.

<snip>

AMY GOODMAN: Now, Alan Grayson, why isn't the U.S. government helping in this? I mean, it's about getting money back. It's about fraud against the U.S. government.

ALAN GRAYSON: Well, there's no good explanation. There's no good answer to that question. In fact, the U.S. government should be helping, and they're not. The Bush Administration has done nothing up to this point to get this money back. In fact, it was almost a year before they even cut off the flow of new contracts to this contractor. And to this day, Custer Battles is still performing security work in Iraq. In fact, they're responsible for the security involved in the training of Iraqi army personnel right now. In fact, this corrupt contractor, who the government knew on October 18 of 2003, had already stolen $6 million from the government. Right to this day, the U.S. government is still stuffing money in their pockets.

Custer Battle stance is that the CPA never exited, and they don't need to pay the money back, because it's technically Iraqi money. Unbelievable. :eyes:

along time ago...

So now we have flip flopping soldier hating republicans?? (and I bet they are really French too)

I'll bet every one of those repugs digs french stuff like bidets!! HAHA!

Oh, I get it. Just this one time in March, 2005, we'll be asked to pony up another $80 billion in supplementals. After all, we can't fall short in supporting the Four Glorious Freedoms and the War that Refreshes, now can we?

Then, in November or December, they'll want another $40 or $50 billion, but we'll just have to borrow the money that one time in late 2005, and then Freedom will be On The March, and we won't have to spend on this again, except for maybe one time in March, 2006, one time in October or November, 2006, and so on.